

My friend who had set the whole thing up got called to work the weekend at the last minute on Friday, so I convinced my sister Mindy that her plans for Saturday were not nearly as exciting as the class would be. She was an easy sell, as the plans weren't that solid and she had always wanted to learn linocut as well.
We met Saturday morning outside 3 Fish Studios where the class was being held, a stack of images in-hand and very excited for our creative adventure. It was a gorgeous da

Mindy and I were the first to arrive of our group of seven. Eric, the instructor and resident artist along with his wife, likes to keep the classes small so that he can make sure everyone gets the attention and time they need to make a piece they're happy with, as well as everyone getting enough time on the press to make their allotted 10 prints. The classes are sold out through November (all that's currently offered on the website), and he said they have an 80-person waiting list. That's going to take a while to get through at 8 people per class and two classes per month. And this is why I'm extra grateful I was able to go this weekend!! Apparently, since Daily Candy did a piece on their class, they've been very popular, and with good reason!
The rest of the members of our class trickled in, and we ende

I won't walk you through all the steps of linocut, but suffice it to say, Mindy and I are completely hooked. We asked a very-patient Eric a bevvy of questions about how we could do it at home, and although nothing beats a real press, we discovered that it is possible by running a spoon over the back of the paper placed on the inked plate. Not as uniform and saturated in color, but it might do in a pinch. Otherwise, Eric said he does periodically rent out his studio for a very reasonable $15 an hour, as well as reselling the linoleum he has specially imported from the German manufacturer because it carves so smoothly.
So perhaps that's an option - have a crafting party where we carve the plates together, and then make a special trip to print them. The only trouble with that is that it's very hard to know exactly what you've carved until you print a proof and then go back and make the desired adjustments. But perhaps that's where the spoon technique would come in. Like I said, rather addicted. So many possibilities, and that's just with the single color printing we did - I haven't even gotten into the multi-tone printing!
I bet you're curious how our prints came out. Well, Mindy did one of her sweetheart pitt bull, Gertie, from a photo, and I'm so impressed with how well it came out. And if you're curious about adjustments, she took her time and had it just about perfect the first time around. The only thing she changed was taking off a sliver of the background frame so that the tongue stuck out of the frame.

Mine had two iterations. The first was the solid background, which I liked initially (and still do; I wish I had pulled more than 2 prints off of it), but I wanted to play more with the texturing and carving techniques, and figured this was the opportunity to do it. So I added some Japanese-flag-style rays to the background, adding to the graphic look of the initial gesture drawing.

What really got some of us in the class excited was when Eric started sharing his new love of the French technique of chine collé and we got some bonus instruction on how to add it to our prints. Chine collé is where you add pieces of paper between the inked plate and the regular printing paper to add pattern and/or color to desired areas in your print. He had used pages from a vintage French book for one of his pieces, which was very cool. I used oragami paper he had to add to the asian feel of my piece. Here's what it ended up looking like.

I'd apologize for the length of this post, but I could have gushed on more, the class was that fun and eye-opening. I feel like it's another way to express that creative, artistic side with some extremely satisfying results. The time spent on carving the plate is obviously more worth it if you have reason to make multiple prints, but then being able to add things to those prints to make them individual is a completely separate creative journey in and of itself. I didn't even get into adding watercolors to the prints!
If you have opportunity to sign up for the class at 3 Fish Studios (if you can get past the waiting list, or they also say they can take a group on a weekday if you can't wait that long and have some friends who can take the day off), I highly recommend it. Eric is a great teacher and all-around fun, good guy who feeds off the energy and creativity of the class. Even though it sounds like a long day, 10:30am till 4 or 5pm flies by, and at the end you've got 10 great prints (well, 9, after you leave one for the house for their album as they kindly ask), and a huge feeling of accomplishment. You don't even have to be able to draw - it's tracing and carving what you feel like, - and although it's fun with a friend, our group was small enough that we were all comfortable with each other.
And if you just want to add some great linocut prints to dress up your walls, Eric and his wife sell their pieces on their website. They're very reasonably priced, and it's supporting some great people!
3 comments:
Wow, I love this! I have now added it to the list of things I need to try.
I've been feeling a void lately that I think can only be filled by doing something creative again. I don't know what it's going to be (writing, painting, photo, drawing), but it needs to happen soon before I implode. Your stuff had definitely given me inspiration.
Should we plan on renting Eric's studio for the next PRN west coast reunion?
AF
What a great post, Chelsea. It really is a pleasure to meet and work with people who are as talented as you and your sister. You can come back anytime.
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